Follow @shmsdetroit

Resist the "Aggresive Secularism" of Our Age

by MOSAIC Editorial Team

Catholic scholar George Weigel delivers powerful message to seminary prayer gathering.

Last year, renowned Catholic philosopher Peter Kreeft addressed the Fellowship of St. Paul prayer gatheringand even played Ping-Pong later that evening with delighted Sacred Heart seminarians.

This year, the Fellowship scored big again. Noted Catholic author, theologian, and social commentator George Weigel delivered a powerful presentation at the monthly praise-and-worship event on January 24.

More Seating Needed

The Fellowship of St. Paul is held on Friday evenings during the school year, attended by seminarians, lay students, and outside community members. It includes lively music, prayers of healing, and often features a guest speaker who gives an uplifting talk. When the Fellowship's organizers learned that Weigel would be a keynote speaker at the Life Is a Gift pro-life conference at the seminary on January 25, they invited him to speak at their event, tooand he graciously accepted.

The gathering typically is held in one of the seminary's parlors. But the organizers shifted the event to the seminary auditorium, anticipating an increase in attendance. It was a fortunate move: about 150 people attended the gathering, about three times more than usual.

Fortress Mentality No More

Weigel could be described as a culture warriora faithful and gutsy Catholic intellectual with a vocation to defend the Church's social and ethical teachings in the rough-and-tumble marketplace of ideas. He is Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, an institute in Washington, D.C., dedicated to applying the Judeo-Christian moral tradition to critical issues of public policy. He is also the center's William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies and author or editor of twenty books, including the highly-praised 1999 work on the life of Pope John Paul II, Witness to Hope.

Weigel's presentation centered on the themes of his latest book, Evangelical Catholicism: Deep Reform for the 21st Century. He suggested that the reforms of the Church initiated by the Second Vatican Councilwhich continue on today through the New Evangelization begun by Pope John Paul IIextend back to Pope Leo XIII in the late-nineteenth century. The social reformer Pope Leo was an advocate for the rights of the everyday worker and called for the Church to break from its so-called fortress mentality and engage more effectively with an increasingly secularized society.

Before all else, Weigel explained, an evangelical Catholic must develop a friendship with Christ, meaning a full commitment of heart and mind to follow Christ and his teachings. Such a Catholic must be culture-forming and countercultural, meaning a Catholic should build up the culture by advocating the beauty and truth of Catholic teaching, while at the same time resisting the aggressive secularism of our post-modern age.

Return Visit

Weigel recalled with warm-heartedness his first visit to Sacred Heart Major Seminary. Fourteen years earlier, he delivered the annual commencement address and received from the seminary his first honorary doctoral degree. After his hour-long talk, he accepted questions from the audience and signed copies of his books.

Weigel's attendance at the Fellowship of St. Paul gathering continues the tradition of offering an invitation to a prominent speaker from the annual Life Is a Gift pro-life conference, which is sponsored by the Archdiocese of Detroit's Office of Evangelization and Catechesis each winter.

MOSAIC Editorial Team

Stay connected with Sacred Heart. Sign up for our monthly newsletter.

Academic-mark_blk_rev.png#asset:487

Sacred Heart Major Seminary is a Christ-centered Catholic community of faith and higher learning committed to forming leaders who will proclaim the good news of Christ to the people of our time. As a leading center of the New Evangelization, Sacred Heart serves the needs of the Archdiocese of Detroit and contributes to the mission of the universal Church.